A 2.5 hour DVD project is too large

vomus · Post by **vomus** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:49 pm

Hi!
I just started to use Ulead studio with my Sony DCR-HC42E PAL camera. I successfully acquired all the scenes from two tapes, made two projects, created titles, etc.

However, when I started to create a DVD file from those two projects (made a menu, etc.) it happened that a total size to be written to a DVD is more tha 8 gig although two episodes are only 2.5 hours long.

Can anyone, please, advide on what I did wrong and how can I made the total size smaller so it fits onto one DVD (4.7 gig)?

Thanks in advance,
Sergei

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 8:24 pm

Hi

Your video file has probably used 8000 kbps bit rate.
This is the standard VS template and will fit one hour to a disc.
You need to reduce the Bitrate in order to reduce the file size below 4.3 Gb/4.7Gb

A 3500kbps rate may do the trick.
Use Digital Dolby for the audio

2.5 hours is long to fit to a single layer disc.

There are Bit Rate calculators that can help in choosing a rate

http://dvd-hq.info/Calculator.html

Use the Tools Make Movie Manager to create a template.
Use Share-Create Video File to make a new file from your project.

Read ‘Bit Rates and File Sizes’ from the link below.

Trevor

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 8:34 pm

Use a lower bitrate. (Dolby audio will help reduce the filesize too, if you aren't using Dolby already.)

Here's a Bitrate Calculator.

2.5 hours is getting a bit long for a single-sided DVD. If you reduce the bitrate that much, you will probably notice the lower video quality. My "rule of thumb" is 90 minutes per DVD with Dolby audio. When I've pushed it past 2 hours, I've really noticed loss of quality.

vomus · Post by **vomus** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 9:29 am

DVDDoug wrote:
2.5 hours is getting a bit long for a single-sided DVD. If you reduce the bitrate that much, you will probably notice the lower video quality. My "rule of thumb" is 90 minutes per DVD with Dolby audio. When I've pushed it past 2 hours, I've really noticed loss of quality.

Hmm. Then how comes that a, say, 157 min Harry Potter movie fits on DVD with 5.1 audio?

Sergei

Post by **lancecarr** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 10:13 am

Hi segei,
Commercial DVD's have two main advantages.
First, they are "pressed" not burned so they can pack the data in more efficiently and accurately and this alone allows them to put more on the DVD than us at home using burners.
Secondly, they run a bitrate, I think, of about 4000kbs. If you and I did that the video would look not very good at all. The reason they can do that is that the MPEG encoders they use commercially scan the file maybe around 20 times before the software even starts to encode so that they are very, very efficient. The most you and I get is two-passes before encoding.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 11:14 am

You may also find that commercial DVDs often come in at around the 8 GB mark. Pressed media is not limited to 4.7 GB like burned.

THoff · Post by **THoff** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 4:40 pm

Pressed DVDs don't record data any more densely than burned disks, the storage capacities are the same.

Burned disks are not limited to 4.7GB, you always have the option of using dual-layer disks, which is what all feature-length commercial DVDs use as well.

phil.a · Post by **phil.a** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 8:02 pm

Hi,

Create the video files on your HDD, withiout trying to directly burn a DVD. Then use DVD Shrink to shrink them to a 4.7GB ISO disk image file. This can then be copied to your 4.7GB DVD media. I've done this this afternoon with a 2.5hour Hi-8 compilation, and the quality is very good.